A Pretty Good Week and Very Good News

Hi Everyone-

Here's the latest news from the Cannon home front.

Overall it has been a good week and Brooke's recovery is slowly but surely moving forward.  Although there were a few moments here and there, Brooke really didn't have a bad day this week, and in fact, had her best day yet on Thursday (more about that below).  She is still in some pain and has some discomfort and tightness, but it's getting better the farther out she gets from surgery.

On Monday we got the news over the phone about final pathology from the surgery.  The short story is that everything was confirmed from the previous pathology, both from the original biopsy and the pathology done the day of the surgery.  Brooke has a grade 3 tumor (which means it's quite aggressive and fast-growing), but the lymph nodes were all negative.  In other words, despite it being an aggressive cancer, they believe they have caught it early and before it has spread to other parts of her body -- this is great news of course.

On Thursday Brooke had her first follow-up visit with Dr. Jennifer Tittensor, her general surgeon (the visit last week was with the plastic surgeon).  Okay, true confession here: yes, Brooke and I both giggled when we first heard that the doctor that would perform her mastectomy was named Tittensor -- moving along now.  Speaking of Dr. Tittensor, here is a quick unpaid endorsement:  if you are looking for a surgeon in Utah county, she is top notch, both in terms of her skills as a surgeon, and also as a compassionate human being.  We highly recommend her.

We got even more information about the pathology from Dr. Tittensor at the Thursday visit.  In addition to what I mentioned above, we learned that the tumor measured 1.7 centimeters.  They also checked 11 other "blocks" of breast tissue that had been removed from the left breast (the one with the tumor), and found ductal carcinoma in situ (or DCIS) in 4 of the 11 blocks.  DCIS essentially means cancer that is still in place in the ducts and hasn't spread to surrounding tissues.  Still, and importantly, there are no signs of the cancer spreading.  We also were told that there was no cancer in any of the tissues they checked from her right breast (the side that had cancer in 1998).

If you read the earlier posts, you'll recall that when Brooke had an MRI there was suspicious tissue throughout the left breast, and finding cancer in four more spots obviously confirmed those suspicions.  The surgeon again emphasized though, that the lymph nodes being negative suggests that we don't need to be too concerned about these additional findings.  

What these additional spots of cancer did do though, was absolutely confirm that Brooke made the right decision to have the mastectomy.  If she had chosen to have a lumpectomy, she would have still had additional breast cancer, and would have needed to go back for more surgery sooner rather than later.  We really didn't have any doubts about the decision to have the mastectomy, but it was nice to get that confirmation.

We also got information Thursday about staging.  I'm sure you've all heard of the different stages of cancer, which range from Stage 0 (the least serious) to Stage 4.  When the doctors took all the various factors into account (size of the tumor, no evidence of cancer spreading, clear lymph nodes), Brooke's cancer is Stage 1!  Dr. Tittensor said that means a 90% survival rate.  This is great news and part of what made Thursday so good for her.

The other part of the visit Thursday that was so terrific was that Dr. Tittensor removed her drains!!  We had been told only a week ago to expect the drains to be in for several weeks, but the drainage had slowed to the point that they were comfortable removing them.  Besides being a pain in the side (literally), the drains had made everything tough for Brooke, from dressing, to walking, to showering, to sleeping, etc.  When Brooke found out that she could have the drains removed, she looked like a little girl on Christmas morning.  She was so happy to be rid of them.  I know that some of you had actually prayed for her specifically to be able to get rid of the drains sooner than expected -- thank you for your faith!

So the visit on Thursday gave us very good news, and Brooke left the doctor very happy.  One other thing I wanted to mention:  the doctor was very surprised that Brooke was not on the heavy pain medication when she saw her Thursday.  In fact, by that time Brooke had already been off the heavy stuff and just taking ibuprofen for almost a week.  The surgeon almost couldn't believe it, saying it was very unusual to be doing that so soon after such a major surgery.  So, be warned, despite her mild demeanor, and soft sweet voice, Brooke is one tough Mother!  In case you're wondering, no, this was not news to me -- I've known how tough she is for 26 years.

Looking forward, Brooke has two appointments next week.  She will follow up with the plastic surgeon again, and see her oncologist for the first time since she was diagnosed.  That's the latest news from here. 

- John